Do cult leaders know they are leading a cult, or are they just as deluded as their followers?

 

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Do cult leaders know they are leading a cult, or are they just as deluded as their followers?

I was in Scientology for twenty five years.

There are a variety of answers and people are complicated. One person might know they are lying and pulling off a fraud while another does not. And other more complex answers exist as well.

Robert Jay Lifton is probably the top living cult expert and he has described the state of a cult leader (guru) having a part of their mind that knows about and works to hide the lies and crimes of the cult leader and another part of their mind that enthusiastically believes what they say, because they want their desires to be true so strongly that they in a deluded state want to assert their will over reality, but to do this you need some awareness that reality disagrees with your desires, even if you deny it.

Lifton has described the state of solipsistic reality in his Book Losing Reality.

Here are several quotes from Robert Jay Lifton:

“In studying people’s behavior under extremity, I have found that the mind can simultaneously believe and not believe in something, and can move in and out of belief according to perceived pressures.”

From

The Assault on Reality | Dissent MagazineMagazine

Here is my interview with Robert Jay Lifton — Bill Moyers

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Solipsistic reality means that the only reality he’s capable of embracing has to do with his own self and the perception by and protection of his own self.

— ROBERT JAY LIFTON

From

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: Robert Jay Lifton and Bill Moyers on “A Duty to Warn”

So, very often the guru as Lifton describes has in his model, a part of their mind that is believing in their claims, no matter how extreme or outlandish, and another part more firmly rooted in reality that is demonstrated by their own behavior that they use to hide their lies and crimes. Scientology leader Ronald Hubbard took many steps in creating Scientology policy that are designed to hide the failures and crimes of Scientology, things Hubbard had to be aware of to work to hide. David Miscavige today carries on this tradition and hides the failures and crimes of Scientology in his own way.